An old friend of the forest returns (Profile Updated)

[Gaeva Winged Unicorn]

Willow felt a bit alarmed at the odd reaction of the large dragon, especially when the ground beneath her feet vibrated along. What was this? Some kind of weird attack? Until she realized it was laughter. She laughing. Laughing! This time Willow glared at Lili for real, feeling laughed at. Well we'll see about that. Resolutely the little girl turned her back on the big dragon and did not respond to what she had said. Patience was stupid anyway. Patience took way too long.

Naira wasn't being very nice either, evading her question like that. Long story, yeah right. She was probably keeping something really good all to herself, had to be if it involved teleportation! Willow didn't temper her glare and after shooting it at the reaver as well, she looked away from both of them and even going so far as to cross her arms. It didn't mean she wasn't listening of course, she really wanted to know the answer to Naira's question as well. But she wouldn't honor them with her share of the conversation. That would teach them for sure!

OOC
...I feel like I regress in maturity when I play Willow XD

[Pandoras_Box]

Naira leaned against the tree behind her.

"Really, you're pretty. Last dragon I saw here was highly short-tempered and really territorial. He took over my campsite when I was away. Could summon wasps. That was not a fun time."

Lili bobbed her head at the compliment, outwardly humble, but secretly pleased. Her appearance often awed those she met, but unlike some dragons, she didn't let it go to her head. (But it didn't stop her from having a good polish every now and then!)

The half-dragon nodded her head towards Lili's belly, her bright yellow fringe bobbing around her face.

"How long before they hatch?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear. "I haven't seen a friendly dragon here in a long time. It'd be nice to see them start popping up like crazy again ... Gryphons too. The wolf pack is finally starting to come back together ... Maybe we're finally getting a much-needed renewal."

Lili nudged her bulging pouch with her nose. <They are currently in stasis,> she said. <They are orphans. I rescued them after their mothers were attacked and killed by humans. For all the power I hold, I cannot be everywhere at once, and I was too late to provide aid for them. They are in different stages of development, but since I wanted to have an established lair here before they hatched, I cast the spell to slow their growth. Once I have them back in the nest, I'll remove the spell.>

Willow had turned away from them for some reason, and folded her arms. Lili's head cast a dark shadow as she peered over at the girl. It was clear that she was sulking. Lili got a slightly sly look to her eyes as she glanced at Naira and then back at the little girl.

<Would you like to see an egg, Willow?> she asked.

[Windra]

Different stages of development? Now that was intriguing. Perhaps Naira didn't understand the full nature of Lili ... She was under the impression that the eggs were her own up until this point. So she found those that were orphaned and ... stashed them away within her? How was that even possible? But then again, looking at the dragon's size alone ... she was immense, easily capable of swallowing several humans whole at one! Now that she thought about it, Ebb probably wasn't going to be an intimidation factor. This multi-color draco was by no means bigger than the Greater Grey, but she could certainly pose a challenge.

That was, if Ebb ever came back from wherever he was ... Nemo guessed that the beast was hibernating deep within his catacombs, but there was no way of telling. And she wasn't about to venture in to find out. Yet.

Willow, in the meanwhile, was crossing her arms and looking like a disdainful little child. Naira scratched her head and rose a brow. "Well, uh ... "

Thankfully Lili was on the job. The dragon shot Naira a coy look before pushing the brown-skinned child's intrigue with a question. Did Willow want to see an egg? The proposition piqued Naira's interest as well. She stood at attention, suddenly fully aware of everything and anything. The last time she'd seen an egg ... well, eggs ... had been on the Hatching Sands of Inora. Cracking shells and creels of hungry dragonettes, all vying for foo, love, and attention. Mishayirth bursting through the hard protective layer, gasping her first lungful of air as her mind intertwined with Naira's ...

The memory seared painfully through her chest. She swallowed painfully, forcing herself to look onto a possibly brighter future.

"I'd like to see, too."

[Gaeva Winged Unicorn]

While making sure she kept her sulky pose, Willow could help but be extremely intrigued by the dragoness' words. Difficult words at that. Stasis? Stages of development? What? It was slightly out of the little girl's ability to comprehend, though she gathered from the context that they were talking about about eggs that weren't Lili's, and were under her direct control. Lili would decide when the eggs would hatch, not nature. Willow felt awe. This dragon, she was special for sure. Even though she did laugh at Willow.

But then, the lure, and try though Willow might, the little girl could not keep up the pretense of still being miffed, and gave into her sudden intense curiosity and desire to see this egg. It was "just" an egg, but it had been presented in just the right way to make it irresistible not to consider it to be a special treat. Possibly even a reward. Ok, Willow was willing to forgive Lili for her crime of laughter, and she couldn't even remember why she was mad at Naira anymore.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

[Pandoras_Box]

Lili's offer to show them an egg was clearly well received. Even Naira was interested. Lili lowered her eyelids and slanted her face a demure fashion, and then sat up, sitting back on her heels, her wings arranged neatly at her sides, resting on the ground, her fifth and sixth limbs of support. Her bulk shadowed the two tiny figures below, but the effect was dazzling. Though her features were silhouetted by the sun, the light shone through her prism quills and cast a glittering, twinkling fairy dance of color and light around her head.

She stretched her taloned hands and then laid them upon the considerable bulge of her belly to draw attention to it.

<Phase dragons carry their eggs in a belly pouch for a time. Because the eggs are soft shelled when they are first laid, they need time to harden properly before they are placed within the fire of the nest.>

She rubbed at a navel-like indentation with her palms, palpating gently. It relaxed, gradually opening enough to allow her to gingerly reach inside. She didn't make much of a show of trying to grasp an egg; her pouch was so full that she could scarcely get a hand in. What she withdrew from the pouch, though, could hardly be described as an egg.

It was almost perfectly spherical, with a brightly polished, unblemished surface of the deepest and most incredible sapphire blue. It rested in her large palm, cupped in the shadow of her claws, and seemed to glow from within. Stared at long enough, one could detect subtle pattern shifts in the color, as if a slightly opaque smoke as wafting slowly across the shell, just under the glassy surface.

<When the shells are hardened, they are removed and placed into the nests we build for them, and then we breathe on them from time to time. They remain, bathed in their mothers fire, until they hatch.>

She lowered her hand for Naira and Willow to come closer and see. <Each egg has a unique color and pattern. You may touch, if you wish.>

[Windra]

It was ... it was beautiful. The way it shimmered, how odd it's nature reflected the light, the slow swirls stretching their way across the shell ... Naira found herself mesmerized by the thing. How strange it looked! Not oblong like a normal egg, this one was completely spherical, like that of a well-rounded pearl found stuffed deep within an oyster's gullet. So puny was it in Lili's massive hand: her fingers cast such a shadow upon it!

Lili brought it closer to them, offering them both a chance to press their hands against its delicate form. Nemo contemplated it for a brief moment before hesitantly stepping back due to the aching in her chest. It brought back too may memories of Mishayirth. Their time together had been short-lived, but when a dragon imprints upon your soul ... the essence of them was meant to last beyond death. All that remained now was silence.

"Sorry," Naira whispered in such a small voice the dragon might not have heard her at all. She shrugged her shoulders, instead transitioning curiosity to the Phase Dragon's navel. "That surprised me. I guess when you said you were storing eggs ... I thought they were, you know, inside you. Like a uterus. Not a pouch. How many eggs have you saved?"

[Gaeva Winged Unicorn]

Willow's eyes widened just a tad as Lili sat up. No mistaking her for huge before, but the way she stretched upwards the way she sat made the little girl very aware of how much of would probably hurt to have that kind of mass fall on top of her. Just as quickly her attention was redirected to the dragoness' belly as Lili moved her talon over to rub her scales. Curiously Willow watched closely, her mouth ever so slowly opening in curiosity and wonder. This was something she definitely had never ever seen before. Is that where eggs came from?

Her big purple eyes follow the movement until the egg was revealed. Willow gasped before she could stop herself. She had not expected it to look like that! It was beautiful! "It doesn't look like an egg at all!" she blurted out. And they were allowed to touch it??

Eagerly Willow raised her hands before Lili had even moved close enough for them to touch it yet, though when held right in front of them, Willow hesitated for a moment. something about the gesture of the dragoness made the girl feel something unusual, she felt herself responding to something...nice? Was that it? Whatever it was, who cares. Willow let a little brown skinned hand rest on the blue orb, her mouth hanging open again in wonder. "It's not cold," she commented randomly. The blue color had made her expect to touch something like ice. "Can I have one?" she said, not missing a beat.

"That surprised me. I guess when you said you were storing eggs ... I thought they were, you know, inside you. Like a uterus. Not a pouch. How many eggs have you saved?"

"What's an uterus?" Willow asked with a frown. This was something she'd never heard of before, but if it was where beautiful dragon eggs could be found then she wanted to know!

[Pandoras_Box]

((OMG Lili's entire species just got way more complicated! Forgive me, but I'm going to be weeks trying to figure this new twist out. XD

Also, forgive me my absence.))

Lili watched their reactions at the reveal. It wasn't often she showed her eggs to others.

Naira looked mesmerized, watching the patterns that swirled slowly across the shell. She seemed hesitant to touch it though, took a step back. A hint of expression pinched her eyes; a painful memory, perhaps.

"Sorry," she whispered, so faintly that Lili almost didn't hear.

"It doesn't look like an egg at all!" Willow blurted out, totally ignoring everything but the egg she was ogling. She had approached with arms raised, ready to touch the egg in total fascination. The tiny girl rested her hand upon it. "It's not cold," she said, seeming surprised. "Can I have one?" she asked eagerly.

<I'm afraid not, child,> she replied with quiet amusement. <They are my offspring, not pets.> She spoke to Willow, but watched Naira instead as she shrugged, as if to shake something loose from her mind. When the half dragon next spoke, she had changed the subject, which she thought curious. Naira pointed at her belly, at the opening of her pouch.

"That surprised me," she said. "I guess when you said you were storing eggs ... I thought they were, you know, inside you. Like a uterus. Not a pouch. How many eggs have you saved?"

"What's an uterus?" Willow interjected, frowning seriously.

<Ah yes,> Lili said. <We do have a somewhat unconventional method of birthing.>

How to describe it without making things awkward? The little races were always so prudish about their mating rituals.

<A female dragon has a uterus of sorts,> she explained. <The eggs are first fertilized there, and grow inside for a while. The number of eggs varies of course, and so does the viability, depending on a variety of factors. But because our young are born to appear human, it is easier if they emerge outside of the mothers body. So the eggs are laid with soft shells, and kept in the pouch to harden a while, before they are placed into the nest.>

She rolled the egg gently between her fingers, feeling the sleep-whisper of the youngster inside as it flitted around the edges of her mind.

<When in the nest, the eggs sit in a plume of their mothers fire. It protects them, and imparts wisdom.>

That was going to be a bit difficult to explain. She would have to delve into the creation memories of her race, memories that stretched back over countless millennia, and quite possibly (she suspected) several worlds ago.

<When the Great Mother first created us, we were built to blend in with the humans of the outside world. Our first 50 years of life would be spent living with them, so that we gained the local knowledge of the land and people before we changed. All the better to know the people the next generation was to live amongst. But our hatchlings receive their very first influences while still in the egg. The mother's fire carries the information, and can help determine things about the hatchlings, such as appearance. It's useful to have a youngster that will blend in with the locals.>

She was quiet for a few minutes, delving into memories and sorting thoughts, before finally speaking again. <Humans and phase dragons were originally meant to work and live together in peace. We were to be guardians of their lands, and they were to help teach and provide for our young, for the greatest intent of the Great Mother was that were were to be gatherers of knowledge, scholars, libraries, if you will, of wisdom for the world.>

This is where the memories always got a bit distorted and confused. It had taken months of meditation to even begin sorting them out, and years more to get this far, to set them in her mind as clear images. They had always puzzled her fiercely, until she had noticed a few small discrepancies among the muddled images, which had given rise to the thought that perhaps phase dragons had taken multiple worlds (whatever that might mean) to become what they are. The whole idea was mind boggling even for her, and she had no idea how to make heads nor tails of the theory.

The images of other lands and other skies and other races of unbelievable nature led her to believe that she was remembering only a tiny fraction of the vast race memories of her kind, and that if she lived long enough, she might find out what those images meant. And for someone as old as she was, that was really saying something.

She glanced down her nose and carefully drew small spirals into the sandy ground under her empty hand. These were deeply disturbing thoughts, and always left her unsettled. She remembered she'd been speaking, so continued, hoping to banish the unease with her words.

<This cooperative situation collapsed after a few generations,> she said said simply. <Either through fault of dragon or fault of man, or both; it has been debated among the old. But it meant change, change that our kind couldn't keep up with. So it became necessary for us to raise our own youngsters, awkward as it was, or to send them among strangers with far less to be prepared with. Some mothers even abandoned their young to fend for themselves, under the cruel assumption that if they were strong enough, they would survive. That mind set... created a rift among us, and the society and culture of phase dragons itself began to break down.>

Easy, she thought. Don't be too grim. They don't need the whole weight of the angst of your race.

<And that was the beginning of a long line of problems we have faced, and the predicament I was forced to escape from.> She lifted the egg and tucked it carefully back into her pouch. <I have 15 eggs,> she said sadly. <There are probably more, but I have left my sons and daughters to find them, and perhaps bring them here if they feel so inclined. Or start a new colony. Either way, I will be here, to raise these.>

She smiled then, the corners of her mouth curling up, but it was only for show; the smile didn't reach her eyes. <But I am not here to burden you with the flaws of my kind,> she said. <Only to make a new home in peace.>

[Windra]

"And now you know," Naira told Willow with a slight grin.

And knowing is half the battle!

Hearing out Lili's words brought the curious child out in Naira. She dared to step closer, allowing her fingers to lightly brush the intricate shell as it was rolled back and forth between the giant dragon's monstrous digits. It was sleek, smooth, and very warm. Something about it's texture triggered a pit of fire to glow within her chest, startling the Reaver into pulling back - but slowly this time. Her expression changed from one of remorse to relaxation. Naira was in no way related to Lili or any of her brood through genetics or any other means, but the kinship inspired through Windra's own blood coursing through the undead Earthling's veins fed a hungry flame of pride.

"It's almost similar to humans," noted Naira with a chuckle ."A child for us spends nine months within the womb. For that short period of time, mother and baby share an important bond with one another. Thoughts and emotions are transmitted ... gained by the newborn where they'll either flourish or sit in the youngling's subconscious until the time is right for the knowledge to surface. New moms will typically play music to their bellies. Or read stories to them. Have you ever heard that people who talk to plants actually stimulate their growth? Yeah ... the idea is the same ... "

Lili's backstory was both impressing and depressing. Naira's orbs followed the spirals drawn upon dirt, swaying her tail in a gentle tempo as if to mock a metronome. She couldn't help but frown. The dragon's tale was similar to others who ventured into Deep Forest: stories woven from heartbreak and disaster wrought upon them by the race of man. It was disturbing to be part of a species that brought about the end of so many civilizations and wondrous things, but in other worlds ... in other times ... cultures flourished under their hands. Why were they mucking up so much in one spot, only to do so well in others?

Naira answered this paradox with another simile. "I'm not sure how much of the universe you're aware of," said the Reaver, speaking evenly in a tone meant to placate a tempestuous mood in case the dragon took offense. "But every planet has different versions, lying upon different planes, different dimensions ... different realities. Take my home, for example: Earth. The reality of Earth which I hail from is basically one where humans have taken over. Mystical races like dragons, gryphons, phoenixes ... they're all gone, long extinct ... but not because of man's cruelty. Back in the ancient ages, dragons and other creatures were known to raze the land of crops with endless torrents of flame, snatch stray villagers from their homes and devour them whole in front of gathered crowds. For a long time, humans attempted to appease them by offering sacrifices, monetary tithes in gold and silver, even honoring them as vengeful gods. When this did nothing but dwindle their numbers, man eventually took up arms and slayed the dragons until the last drew his final breath. It was the same for other species ... "

The Reaver was quick to backtrack, waving her hand dismissively.

"But in another version of earth - in an alternate universe of some sort - the humans have learned to co-exist with animals. In fact, they evolved to resemble one another until you had different subspecies of man-beasts. One of the residents in Deep Forest actually came from that place ... He was half cat, half man ... and a doctor to boot!"

By now Naira was off in a tangent. She knew her story had vaulted into a totally different direction than the one she had intended to take, but was so distracted with speaking that she hardly paid the fact any mind.

"And then there was Inora. Wonderful, beautiful Inora. It was a different planet, far off on the other side of the universe. Humans from Earth, in this reality, had devastated their planet so much that they could no longer live upon it. So they took refuge by going to other worlds and cultivating lives there ... or in space stations deep within the cosmos ... A handful landed on inora and claimed that as home. And it was peaceful for a long time until they discovered something fell from the skies every few years that ravaged land, destroyed crops, and seared through flesh like acid. Now many of the people that lived on Inora were biological scientists. They went to work splicing genes together, playing god ... and incidentally ... they created dragons ... But ... it was different."

Now the half-dragon stalled. She stood before Lili's egg and stared at it, smiling. This continued for a few seconds before she realized the eeriness of her gaze and shook her head. Mismatched eyes locked with the dragon's.

"The dragons couldn't survive on their own. Yes, newborn's shared a bond with their mother ... but it wasn't the same kind of bond that you share with your children ... or humans with their's ... You know how some baby animals will imprint upon the creature that is closest to them? A duck who is born beneath the bosom of a cat will assume the cat to be it's mother. What a wolf pup sees when it finally opens it's eyes will be considered kin. The same rule applied to these dragons. They would hatch together, but stray from the mother immediately and towards the crowd of humans. Instead of likening to the first people they saw, however, they would read minds ... seek those who shared similar thoughts, ideals, hopes ... and once those people were found, an unbreakable bond would be forged that transcended every known sensation in the world. They would be sisters, or brothers. They would feel each other's pain and sorrow, love, joy ... anger."

She stopped now. An unreadable expression crossed her features. It was ultimately blank with her mouth drawn into a thin, tight line.

"As a Soul Reaver, I can jump from one realm to the next. I can leap from here to a thousand years from now in the blink of an eye. I've spent my entire life straying here, travelling there ... and I came to Inora, and ... " Naira froze. Hastily, she drew in a breath and changed the subject, obviously averting something that was extremely bothersome and painful to recall. "But ... everybody in the Deep Forest has their stories. Everybody is running from something. But here, finally, you can afford to stop and rest. Dangers come and go - they always do - but we've always stood together as one to deflect them."

[Gaeva Winged Unicorn]

OOC
Accepted.

As Windra is no longer posting there isn't much use in continuing this I guess. If you want to add the species info then go ahead.

[Pandoras_Box]

Can she be put back into use again? :)

[forgerofsouls]

Unfortunately, you will have to reapply the characters to the new joining threads. These old ones are archieved and thus off limits. Sorry.